ITALY - UK PARTNERSHIP

PARTNERSHIP | Autumn 2019 24 Fishing for litter in Apulia A Regional project to clean the sea and raise awareness of plastic pollution W hen everyone combines to pursue a goal with a common good, something great always happens. As in the case of “Fishing for Litter”, the pilot project born from the collaboration of the Puglia Region, Corepla (National Consortium for the Collection, Recycling and Recovery of Plastic Packaging), Ager (Territorial Agency for Waste Management), Arpa (Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection) and the Port Authority of the Southern Adriatic Sea. The project involves the whole regional territory and is aimed at encouraging the collection of plastic found in the sea, through the involvement of fishing vessels. The project started in November 2018 in the Port of Molfetta (in the Bari area) where, over the course of only six months, using the trawling method, ten fishing vessels and forty workers collected 2,700 kg of waste. Out of this, 400kg were taken as a sample and analysed: 44% of the total was composed of non-packaging plastics, while the remaining 40% was composed of rags and hemp ropes (27%), plastic packaging (16%), wrap film (9%), plastic bottles and jars (3%), expanded polystyrene (1%), plates and glasses (0.03%). The collected waste was differentiated and deposited in the recycling areas managed by the municipal service company of Molfetta, ready to be recycled and re-used. “This project – said Gianni Stea, Regional Councilor for the Environmental Quality – had to involve fishermen, who are the true guardians of the sea. Let us not forget that their activity is what would suffer the most from the presence of waste in the sea. Therefore, with their full cooperation we began cleaning our sea, but we are just at the beginning because, as per now, the project is focusing only on the stretch of sea between Molfetta and the Tremiti Islands. Our goal is to extend the project to the whole region”. To reward the fishermen for the results obtained from November to April, Councilor Gianni Stea delivered award flags to the owners of the fishing vessels on 19th April, as a recognition for the work carried out with precision and zeal. “We proudly claim - continued Stea - the primacy of the Puglia Region in protecting the environment, hoping to deliver many more flags to other ports in our region. We will extend this project to the whole Apulian territory. Meanwhile, ‘Fishing for Litter’ is also starting in Barletta and Manfredonia. We are working to involve also other Apulian ports and fishing fleets”. ‘Fishing for Litter’ managed to overturn some consolidated dynamics. Because of the exorbitant disposal costs, most of the waste collected by the fishermen used to be thrown back into the sea. Thanks to this regional project, the Territorial Agency for Waste Management decided to undertake the disposal costs, without any charge for the fishing vessels. Hence the beginning of a good practice that the protocol signatory authorities hope will be emulated by an increasing number of fishing vessels. WASTE AS AN OPPORTUNITY It is vital to raise awareness on the knowledge of waste as an opportunity and as a resource that can create value, and not as a burden to urgently get rid of. This is a possible practice provided that the waste separation becomes the only and the best possible way of collection. Furthermore, in order to contrast the improper disposal of waste and empower citizens and tourists to consciously collect and recycle, starting from summer 2019 some municipalities where mass tourism has been registered (such as Porto Cesareo, Castellaneta Marina and others that are